Follow Me novel Chapter 1

“You wanted to be my bride, Sadie?” said the man with his deep and magnetic voice.

Her heart was about to melt hearing him whispering the words to her so lovingly. He inched closer and kissed her on the lips, his lips were soft and warm. “You are mine from now on. You cannot let anyone else other than me kiss you, remember that.”

Sadie Chambers couldn’t see the man’s face clearly. She tried to squint and look harder but to no avail. The only thing she could feel right now was the sensation from his kisses, her heart was thumping so hard it felt like it would jump out of her chest any moment.

She wanted to ask the man when did she ever say that she would be his bride. Before she could ask anything, the man said, “I can wait until you grow a bit older.”

Did she ever promise to become someone’s bride when she grew up? Sadie turned her head around and found herself in a wedding ceremony.

She was a flower girl, and she was wearing a cute white dress. She looked like a princess. Her hand was being held by someone and the person walked her slowly down the aisle into the church.

The person’s hand was large and warm. She raised her head and tried to take a good look at him, but she still couldn’t see anything.

Who’s wedding was this? Why was she the flower girl? Sadie mumbled unconsciously. Suddenly, she felt a sharp pain in her chest and the scenery right before her eyes went up in flames. She could hear the sound of people yelling miserably, “Sadie!”

Sadie woke up from the nightmare. The back of her shirt was drenched by her sweat and she felt pain on the left side of her cheek.

That was weird. She had that weird dream again. Did she forget about something?

It began ever since she was 12 years old. It had been 6 years now and she would dream of the same thing, again and again, every year during the summer. But she could never remember anything after she woke up.

She rubbed her sore shoulders and looked up. The person before her eyes was Dean Esme, she was sleeping deeply on the hospital bed. Sadie lowered her head and folded the notice of critical illness on her hand. She then gently pushed open the door and left the wardroom.

She was there since this morning and didn’t even have the time to change her clothes. She was still wearing the cheap wedding dress from the event she was working at and still had the make-up on. She rushed to the hospital immediately after she got the call today.

She called each and every one of Dean Esme's relatives, but none of them offered to help.

She was tired and was feeling a bit unwell, and so she fell asleep unknowingly. She only woke up after two hours.

The air was a bit sultry. It was already midnight, but the heat didn’t seem to dissipate.

It was very quiet in the hospital’s courtyard, the only other thing she could hear was the chirping of the crickets from time to time.

Sadie sat down on the steps in front of the lobby entrance. She looked down and stared at the cheap wedding dress she was wearing absentmindedly for a while. She then gritted her teeth, unlocked her phone and dialed a number.

The call waiting tone was beeping mercilessly from her phone speaker. Every beep seemed to cut through her heart sloppily like it was a blunt knife.

She gripped her phone tightly like a prisoner awaiting sentence and listened to the call waiting tone helplessly and desperately. She pursed her plump lips, looked up and stared at the clear night sky.

The hospital requested her to pay for the medical bill from the early stages of the treatment which was about more than one million, only then they would arrange for the next surgery. If she couldn’t get the money before morning, Dean Esme couldn’t undergo the surgery and wouldn’t have more than 3 months to live.

After a very long time, the call waiting tone finally came to an abrupt stop and an annoyed voice of a woman could be heard.

Sadie’s eyes looked hopeful again, she tried to ask calmly, “Talia, is it possible for me to ask for an advance wage payment for the next show?”

After listening to the other person’s answer, Sadie closed her eyes and implored, “I really need the money. I know I shouldn’t have called you in the middle of the night, but my mother…”

The other person hanged up the call before Sadie could finish her sentence.

She stared at her pitch-black phone display in a daze and leaned her back against the hospital’s canopy’s marble pillar. She was worn out and her body slid down slowly as if all the strength in her body was suddenly taken away.